Here in the DC area we got about a foot of snow overnight. I'm lucky enough to captain a 2003 Audi A4 1.8T with Quattro, and that car has been eminently reliable in bad weather. So sure-footed, in fact, that I call it "the Puma."

But scraping my undercarriage along the ice-crusted snow underneath was disconcerting, and got me wondering, and hopefully you, too...

A crazed robber puts a gun to your head, clicks the hammer, and in a bourbon-tinged whisper, growls: You have $5,000 to spend on a snow-capable SUV, built in the 1990s. What do you pick, and why?